This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119 (a) on Patent Application No. 2008-33243 filed in Japan on Feb. 14, 2008, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Use of input/output integrated display apparatuses, as typified by the electronic whiteboard, in conferences, lectures, etc. is spreading these days. The electronic whiteboard is an apparatus that permits text and lines to be drawn directly on its display screen with an input pen and displays the text and lines on the display screen. There is another type of electronic whiteboard that can further store text and lines displayed on the display screen in a storage medium and print out or output the text and lines in the form of electronic data. Such an electronic whiteboard can, not only display information entered with the input pen, but also directly display digital photographs, graphs, and so on, created by personal computers (PCs). As such, they are considered of very great practical use and are widely used.
As another type of electronic whiteboard, a color electronic whiteboard onto which text and lines can be entered in color is disclosed in, for example, JP H11-327789A.
With such a color electronic whiteboard, it is possible to display text and lines in a desired display format on the display screen by setting desired color and line width for each user before users enter text and lines. Thus, text and lines can be displayed on the display screen using particular color and line width for each user, and as a result, ease of visual identification can be provided to participants.
However, such electronic whiteboards capable of color display are problematic in that individual users have to set a pen color and a line width before they enter input, and it may not be so troublesome if this operation has to be done only once, but usually, conferences and lectures are held repeatedly, and thus users each individually have to make pen settings every time a conference or lecture is held, which is very troublesome. Furthermore, if there are multiple users, a significant amount of time is required for all of them to make their settings before they enter input.